Tens of thousands of chickens dead in Sumas Prairie floods

CTV News has learned that at least one poultry farm lost tens of thousands of birds after the Sumas Prairie turned into a lake.

They fought to protect their farms.

But their efforts could not match the powerful floodwaters that have inundated large parts of Sumas Prairie after pouring across the border when the Nooksack River in Washington state spilled its banks.

“You see the water coming up, and you do everything you can to prevent the water from getting into the barns—and at the end of the day, there’s only so much you can do,” said chicken farmer Trevor Dykshoorn.

He said about 30,000 chickens on the farm he manages died overnight.

“It’s tough. It’s tough to see things happen like this again with the farmers and the residents,” he said.

Images over Sumas Prairie Friday felt like a flashback to the catastrophic floods four years ago.

“Why? Why do we have to keep going through this? We know what needs to be done,” said another chicken farmer, Corry Spitters.

His family’s barns barely survived the flooding.

“So last night, I want to say probably 2 in the morning, I was within an inch to half an inch of water entering. Now I’m six inches or so,” said Jeffrey Spitters, Corry Spitters’ son.

But he knows not everyone was so lucky.

“Some of the other farmers have not inches of water on their property, they have feet of water on their property. They’ve lost their homes again. They’ve lost machinery, equipment,” he explained.

At the same time, his family is also dealing with losses from avian flu on a farm at another location.

“We are being inundated on every angle,” Corry Spitters said.

There’s no official information on losses, including how many chickens have died. Some farmers have not been able to enter their barns yet.

But Corry Spitters said more than just one farm has been impacted

“We know that there’s probably a couple hundred thousand birds that have succumbed,” he said. “So we’re told.”

Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens said the city has been trying for years to avoid the exact situation that’s unfolding right now. He said the city developed a flood mitigation plan six months after the devastating floods of 2021, but the federal government has not been listening.

“Enough is enough,” the mayor said. “We need action and we need action now. We don’t need empty promises from the federal government that they have our back. In fact, the federal government has not even reached out to me during this event, so (I’m) profoundly disappointed.”

He said preventing future flooding has to be a top priority.

“I need that flood mitigation plan adopted sooner as opposed to later. I also need to have our friends in Washington state to wake up,” he said.

“Four years later, we’re in the exact same spot and nothing has been done,” said Dykshoorn.

As Sumas prairie farmers wait for help, they are also bracing for more pounding rain to hit the region over the weekend.